Mobile communication networks have evolved over time such that a variety of services are available on a mobile, station other than original voice services. A Short Messaging Service (SMS) is one of advanced services available to the mobile station which allows exchange of text messages between mobile stations. SMS may also offer message exchange with personal computers or the like by providing an SMS interface between the Internet and an SMS server associated with a cellular-based circuit-switched subsystem, which supports the mobile stations having SMS capability.
In the time of the second-generation (2G) mobile communication network technologies, development of data service was limited because of network bandwidth constraints and the intrinsic disadvantages of the SMS are difficult to overcome. With the development and deployment of the third-generation (3G) mobile communication system, various data services based on 3G technologies have been developing rapidly and have a wider field than that based on the 2G mobile communication system.
A Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) is a further development of the SMS following introduction of the 3G mobile communication system. The MMS provides a complete end-to-end solution for personal multimedia mobile communication services. In view of the contents of communications, a multimedia message may consist of any or all of pictures, audio, video and text. In view of the capabilities, it covers various types of multimedia communications including terminal-to-terminal, terminal-to-application server, and application server-to-terminal. Thus the multimedia messaging service not only accomplishes message exchanges among the terminals, between the terminal and the application server, MMS also combines multiple contents such as picture, voice, video and/or text.
As the number of mobile communication carriers increases nationwide, proper and accurate deliveries of the SMS/MMS messages and charging for the SMS/MMS message service are desirable. As a way to assist the routing of SMS/MMS messages in a 3G network, an tElephone NUmber Mapping (ENUM) system, which facilitates the interconnection of communication networks that rely on telephone numbers with the communication networks that utilize the Domain Name Systems (DNS), has been introduced.
As mobile station users change their carrier, they would like to retain their mobile station numbers. As a way to meet the need, some countries including the U.S. implement Number Portability policy which enables mobile station users to retain their mobile station numbers when changing from one carrier to another carrier. It is, however, cumbersome for mobile carrier operators to have accurate knowledge of Number Portability policy and databases for each international destination. Hence, the ENUM servers will be enhanced to serve international destination numbers to accommodate the Number Portability policies of various countries. However, many countries do not have a centralized data server. Therefore, it is a huge burden having accurate ENUM data for international destination mobile stations.
Therefore, a need exists for routing SMS/MMS messages to an international destination mobile station located in a foreign country whether the foreign country implements a centralized Number Portability database or not.
Furthermore, various domestic and foreign carriers have adopted different billing policies with each other for deliveries of the SMS/MMS messages. To support these different billing policies by the domestic and foreign carriers, the carriers maintain separate billing databases from destination number databases to indicate billing rates for destination domains. However, it's not efficient to maintain the separate billing databases.
Hence, a need also exists for technologies for charging efficiently for the delivery of the SMS/MMS messages.